Grade 4 - Essential Agreements and Building Challenge

Grade 4 had a nice first week getting back into the school routine and getting to know some new students in our class.  One important activity at the beginning of the year is the creation of the classroom essential agreements.  For this, all the students participated in sharing ideas for what they think the rules should be for everyone to follow.  We compiled the list and then analyzed them looking for themes and similarities that could be grouped into a broader wording of the rule.  Here is the first list they came up with, along side color coded stars that matched similarities.  

And here is the final result.  I'd say they are great agreements to abide by for a fantastic year!

We also did an activity where the students worked together and tried to remember some of the things they learned about building structures from their 2nd Grade inquiry unit about buildings and construction, if they were at our school then. Their task was to use marshmallows for joints and spaghetti sticks for beams and build the tallest structure they could.  If proved to be a tough challenge and not too many groups were able to get higher than two stories until we learned that following a triangular pattern would be the strongest method after looking at how Tokyo Sky Tree was built.  Here they are in action!